The Derwent – a version by Stephenson and Walch

Late in July this year, an exhibition opened at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) which put ‘Tasmania’s iconic River Derwent on show’. This free-to-attend exhibition will continue on display until 5 November.

The exhibition features the time-lapse photographic and video work of David Stephenson and Martin Walch, taken over a 5 year period. In addition, TMAG has brought out a selection of their permanent collection’s 19th century drawings and paintings depicting the Derwent river around the Hobart area.

In the centre of one gallery space, a display box contained photograph albums from the late 1800s.

Based on the larger ‘The Derwent Project’, viewers at the exhibition are presented with large scale works which provides one indicator of the large scale of our Derwent River. Descriptive still images are provided on the Derwent Project website so you can get some appreciation of what to expect when you visit the exhibition. The photographic works are wall-sized composites of thumbnail photos.

The videos are gigantic projections of the changing waters of the Derwent – along the side of one very long museum wall. I loved the silky silvery quality in the videos. In addition , large image shift pictures changed as you watched in another gallery space.